New Chapter for the Highest Tier (June 2021)

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Vampire King Apollyon

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"You couldn't answer me?" The man snorted.

Then, he gave Hecate a disdainful smile. "Don't look the other way and pretend to be ignorant. The only thing I want to do is to take my child with me."

He turned to look at Princess Sapphire, who was throwing daggers with her eyes. "Princess Ourania had her for the fourteen years of her life." His posture was tense.

Apollyon could see that he was tense.

He clenched and unclenched his fists as if he was ready for a fight. "I just want to make it up to her."

"I told you not to interfere with my plans, Hephaestus."

Hephaestus?

The God of Fire?

Apollyon grabbed into the branches for support, but he was still careful not to make a sound.

He had too many surprises in a short period that he wasn't sure what to think anymore.

Why was Hephaestus here?

Was he the one who killed the aristocrats with the wildfire from the stone he dropped at the Great Hall?

Apollyon's pale face darkened by the minute he put two and two together.

If he was… then it was Princess Sapphire's father who ruined his mother's engagement party with a Knight.

Did the god do it as revenge because he didn't want to see Princess Ourania happy with a new man?

What oath do they have for one another?

It made him more curious about their relationship, if there was even one.

Knowing his mother, Princess Ourania might have tricked the god into doing something for her.

Princess Ourania was a manipulative mother as far as he could understand from their exchange.

How did a god, like him, able to impregnate his mother when she was so out of touch with reality?

There must be some secret behind this.

When did this happen?

Apollyon's question made him scowl.

If Hephaestus was the impostor who killed the aristocrats in the Great Hall, why, out of all people who attended the engagement party, did he use Apollyon's form as glamour to fool the rest of them and killed the aristocrats?

Why did he tell his wife that he picked the wrong target?

He had so many questions, but the best thing he could do for now observed them.

He had a feeling that his eye contact earlier with the Goddess Hecate was a sign that he need not interfere and go to the arbor and join the tense discussion.

"Why are you giving an Archdemon such power—your power--enough that she could defeat a god or a goddess if she wanted to?" Hephaestus asked, "Where does your loyalty lie?"

Were they talking about Luna?

Princess Sapphire raised an eyebrow. "Archdemon?"

Chuckling, Hecate's eyes gleamed like a sparkling diamond in the dark. "My loyalties will always lie to me and to the Underworld because it is my duty as the Goddess. You should have heeded my warning, Hephaestus, when I told you to stop seducing the Summer Princess in the short period where she became my guest in my Kingdom."

Casually sauntering in front of Xerxes and Princess Sapphire, Hecate blocked the two from Hephaestus' sight.

"You lived off from my hospitality in a while after you and your wife's countless affairs and your sexual advances towards Athena were rejected. You have used my poor guest as an outlet for your…" Hecate's gaze scanned him from head to toe and her lips curved upward in a smirk. "-- sexual frustrations."

"I thought I loved her, Hecate." There was a long pause from everyone after his confession. Nobody spoke nor reacted. Maybe, they couldn't believe what they heard. Hephaestus continued, "Princess Ourania wasn't a mere outlet for my misfortunes in love. I was gruff,ugly and lame but she was kind to me and genuinely interested in the work that I do. She was the only one who respected me out of all the women I have encountered in my lifetime. "

Apollyon could hear the hurt when his voice cracked a bit.

He never thought that a God could sound vulnerable.

Maybe, they could when it came to their heart. It was their weakness.

"With her smile as glorious as the morning sun, I thought Princess Ourania had loved me as she kept finding me in my workshop In the Underworld and asked me a lot of questions while I created the weapons—"

"The weapons I have asked of you in exchange for staying in my Kingdom, Hephaestus." Hecate interrupted.

She shook her head in impatience, as if she already knew this would happen. "I told you to stay away from her while she was there—"

"She was the one who came to my bed!" But, Hephaestus explained stiffly in his righteous anger, "I didn't force her to do anything like what I did to Athena."

"So, Princess Ourania seduced you." Her response was matter-of-fact. "Did you give her something in exchange? The Summer Princess was a mercenary through and through."

"It is none of your business." He waved a dismissive hand and shifted his gaze behind Hecate. "It is time for the child to know me as the one who spawned her… who made her a demigod.

"You were a genius and a spy master at a young age." He looked over at the child, he claimed, as he and Xerxes growled again, responding to the threat.

"You aren't who you are holding greater power than the rest of your peers if it wasn't for me."He said in a bold declaration which pissed Princess Sapphire off.

"I did it by myself, father… or whoever you are. I don't care. I achieved the position on my own without your guidance and especially not because the Summer Monarchs have humor my interest just because I am the Princess!" Princess Sapphire cried out as she faced him head-on. "You have no right o discredit my achievements because I had beaten all the Summer Faeries who coveted the position! I became the victor after passing all the tests. You have no right to take the glory away from me!"